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Cisco Evolves IOS XR Network Operating System with Linux
At the core of Cisco's big routers has long been the IOS-XR network operating system. IOS-XR is now evolving, thanks to a rebasing on Linux and the inputs of Cisco's hyperscale web partners. Kevin Wollenweber, director of product management for Cisco’s service provider segment, explained that the new IOS-XR 6.0 release provides improved visibility into a network with a feature called telemetry. Wollenweber explained, that in the past, many network devices used old approach such as SNMP traps that probe a network in order to get information.
“What we've done with telemetry is we have built a publisher/subscriber model where devices push out information at regular intervals,” Wollenweber said.
Additionally IOS-XR provides more programmability to enable a higher degree of network automation. Technologies such as puppet and chef for orchestration are now also enabled for automation.
“We built an infrastructure that allows people to run their own applications in Linux containers on the router itself,” Wollenweber said.
Cisco is using Linux Containers (LXC) as the container technology. Wollenweber explained that IOS-XR is now based on a Linux infrastructure, which is what enables more toolchains and standard interfaces.
AMD Crimson Driver Downgrades Performance on Linux
Recently, AMD claimed that the company will provide over a 100% performance boost in some Linux games via the Crimson Driver. The stats they showed were impressive so we expected Linux performance to improve. AMD shared a few slides which showed 112% performance boost in Bioshock Infinite, 113% in DOTA and a staggering 155% in Total War.
But is the performance actually as good as they claim? While Windows users look pretty happy about Crimson and the optimizations it brought, how does AMD users feel about this? Actually it downgrades performance compared to AMD Catalyst 15.9. AMD really dropped the ball on this one and once again Linux players screwed over.
It looks like AMD Crimson Driver is not the way to go for Linux users, so they better stick with Catalyst for now. Well, at least until AMD fixes this problem.
Source: http://techfrag.com/2015/11/28/amd-crimson-driver-downgrades-performance-on-linux/
Some Raspberry Pi Devices Have Predictable SSH Host Keys
Raspberry Pi devices running on Raspbian may need to be patched to avoid a security issue that results in the device generating weak and predictable SSH keys. Raspbian is a free operating system based on Debian optimized for Raspberry Pi hardware. According to developer oittaa, the issue resides in the way Raspbian generates SSH keys.
“As soon as the systems starts up, systemd-random-seed tries to seed /dev/urandom, but /var/lib/systemd/random-seed is missing, because it hasn't been created yet,” explains the developer. “/etc/rc2.d/S01regenerate_ssh_host_keys is executed, but /dev/urandom pool doesn't have that much entropy at this point and predictable SSH host keys will be created,” he continues.
Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/some-raspberry-pi-devices-have-predictable-ssh-host-keys-496864.shtml
Ubuntu GNOME 15.10: The perfect Linux desktop distribution
For the longest time I'd been heralding Ubuntu and its Unity desktop as one of the best Linux distributions. I liked Unity… a lot. The design was beautiful, and workflow about as efficient as you would ever find. The Dash, the Launcher, the HUD… they all came together in a perfect storm of form and function.
But then things seem to sour a bit. First the releases seemed to offer little to no improvements. With the developers working desperately to bring to life the next iteration of Unity (Unity 8/Mir), it seemed the desktop, as it stood, had become an afterthought. During that time, something very, very interesting happened.
Ubuntu GNOME 15.10. It is everything vanilla Ubuntu should have been from the start. It's what every Linux desktop environment should aim to be. In fact, this was the first time, since I've been using Linux, that I completed an installation of a distribution and actually struggled to find a necessary tweak.
Source: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/ubuntu-gnome-15-10-the-perfect-linux-desktop-distribution/
Linux Foundation adds Open Networking Summit to event portfolio
The Linux Foundation is adding the Open Networking Summit to its event portfolio beginning with the next show scheduled for March 14 in Santa Clara, California.
The ONS was initially started by companies focused on software-defined networking technologies to enable collaboration efforts centered on SDN, OpenFlow and network functions virtualization. Those events have seen collaborative efforts announced from the likes of AT&T, Google and the Linux Foundation.
“Open source SDN and NFV are the future of networking and future of our industry. Transitioning ONS to the Linux Foundation allows ONS to build on its successes as the premier event shaping the future of SDN and NFV to help grow the community and accelerate adoption of open source SDN and NFV by network operators and vendors,” said ONS Chair Guru Parulkar. “The ONS team looks forward to working with the Linux Foundation team to make 2016 a resounding success.”
Google's killing Chrome support for 32-bit Linux, Ubuntu 12.04, and Debian 7
If you purchased your computer in the last decade, it probably has a 64-bit-capable processor. The transition to 64-bit operating systems has been a long one, but Google is about to give Linux users another push. In March 2016, Google will stop releasing Chrome for 32-bit Linux distributions. In an update posted to the Chromium-dev mailing list, Google’s Dirk Pranke wrote:
“To provide the best experience for the most-used Linux versions, we will end support for Google Chrome on 32-bit Linux, Ubuntu Precise (12.04), and Debian 7 (wheezy) in early March, 2016. Chrome will continue to function on these platforms but will no longer receive updates and security fixes.
We intend to continue supporting the 32-bit build configurations on Linux to support building Chromium. If you are using Precise, we’d recommend that you to upgrade to Trusty.”
Microsoft brings Debian GNU/Linux to Azure cloud
Microsoft has collaborated with credativ to offer Debian GNU/Linux as an endorsed distribution on its Azure cloud. Microsoft already had ties with SUSE and Canonical to offer openSUSE, SLE and Ubuntu on Azure cloud. It also had deals with OpenLogic to offer Red Hat’s CentOS. And after a very long wait, Microsoft struck a deal with Red Hat to bring RHEL to its cloud. That left Debian, one of the most popular GNU/Linux distributions on servers, behind. Until now. Customers can now easily provision Debian-based virtual machines in Microsoft Azure. There are two supported versions of Debian available for Azure: Debian 7 (codename “wheezy”) and Debian 8 (codename “jessie”), both built by credativ.
Passionate Linux fans may criticize Microsoft for being hypocritical: at one hand they display their love for Linux, and on the other hand they continue with their patent attacks against Linux players.
There is actually no hypocrisy here. It’s pure business.
Can We Save Wireless from Regulators?
Linux was born and grew within an ecosystem of norms, not laws. Those norms were those of programming (C), operating systems (*NIX), command shells (bash, etc), e-mail (SMTP, etc), licenses (GPL, etc), and Internet protocols (TCP/IP and the rest).
Had Linux and the Internet been left up to the world's big operating system and network providers, we never would have had either one. Instead, we would have had what business giants and their captive regulators are inclined to believe what both actually are: “intellectual property” and billable “services”.
“Free” and “open” are the adjectives that best describe the development ethos that allowed Linux and the Internet to happen. Yes, there were regulations around, but Linux and the Net grew up outside the scope of what Bob Frankston calls The Regulatorium. To a blessed degree they still do, but that degree is getting narrower and less blessed as more of our computing and communicating moves to mobile devices.
Source: http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/can-we-save-wireless-regulators
Apple open sources Swift and makes a Linux port available
You no longer need a Mac computer to build apps using Apple's newest code platform: Apple made its Swift programming language open source on Thursday, just as Google has done for Dart. The company introduced Swift as a surprise during its 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference. Until then Apple's Xcode IDE and Objective-C was used to create all Apple apps. A year later, Apple surprised again by promising to open source the Swift platform this year.
By opening up the platform beyond the confines of Cupertino, Apple expects others to contribute to the Swift language as it matures. Along with the open source launch, Apple has already published a Swift port for Linux computers. To use the Linux port, you'll need an x84, 64-bit computer, and use either the source code to build Swift yourself or download pre-built binaries for Ubuntu. Apple says the port is a work in progress, but useful to experiment with Swift on a Linux machine.
Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-open-sources-swift-and-already-makes-a-linux-port-available/
Linux Foundation: Shaping our software-defined future
Over the past decade, Linux has gone from scrappy insurgent to mainstream choice for the enterprise data center. Linux has ruled the cloud from the beginning, and while it flopped on the desktop, it has an 83 percent share of smartphones in the form of Android, which is built on the Linux kernel. Plus, Linux pretty much owns the embedded market, from TVs to cars to new IoT devices.
Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, has watched these triumphs up close during his 10-year tenure with the organization. During that time, the Linux Foundation has quietly expanded to encompass 26 collaborative projects, including such marquee ventures as Cloud Foundry, Node.js, OpenDaylight, and Xen.
The Linux Foundation also puts on dozens of live events, including the Apache Software Foundation’s conferences, and runs a booming training business. For example, says Zemlin, hundreds of thousands of aspiring admins take Linux courses offered by the Foundation on edX for free.
The insecurity of platforms and how open source overcomes it
All platforms are insecure. They can all be exploited in one way or another. At some point in time, it will be announced that no operating system is invulnerable and every single one of them has their kryptonite. Every. Single. One.
Windows. OSX. Linux. Android. iOS. None of them are one hundred percent safe. Plug them into a network and their security is compromised. It doesn't matter how well the platform is designed, there will be those up to the challenge of taking it down.
However, there is one platform that is better suited for overcoming that which ails the flawed ones and zeros. One platform that is not only adept and agile enough to run toe-to-toe with entropy and infiltration… one that can overcome.
Source: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-insecurity-of-platforms-and-how-open-source-overcomes/
Linux smartphones took a serious step back in 2015
2015 was such a hopeful year for Linux on smartphones. At the beginning of the year, there was so much hope for what could be. The promise of Ubuntu Touch being available on shipping devices was alluring. FirefoxOS phones were already shipping… and the future was looking bright. And Jolla was gearing up for a new iteration of their Linux-powered OS, along with a shiny new tablet to go with it.
Then – at the #mozlando conference on Tuesday, December 8th – Mozilla announced that they would no longer be working with carriers to ship Firefox OS phones. Mozilla issued the following statement, via TechCrunch:
“Firefox OS proved the flexibility of the Web, scaling from low-end smartphones all the way up to HD TVs. However, we weren't able to offer the best user experience possible and so we will stop offering Firefox OS smartphones through carrier channels.”
This is definitely sad news for those looking forward to a free system for their smartphones. But the onslaught of bummer-inducing news doesn't end there. Jolla, the company behind Sailfish OS, is having some serious problems… including layoffs. The company is now, according to Antti Saarnio (Jolla Chairman of the Board), “fighting for its survival.”
Adobe Releases Massive Security Update for Linux Flash Player
Adobe abandoned active development for the Flash Player on Linux a while back and is now only releasing security upgrades. The company just released a massive security update, and it looks like the Linux platform is covered as well.
Flash is so well embedded on the Internet that it's really difficult to get rid of. Despite being shunned by all the major players like YouTube, Facebook, Apple, and pretty much everyone else, it's still present all over the place. That means that all the security problems are still present, and they need to be dealt with.
The Flash Player for Linux has been stuck at version 11.x for many years, and it's not going to advance. It will stay in that branch until it is declared dead, but, from time to time, Adobe remembers that there are Linux users as well and that they might be affected.
'Fairly bad core bug' crushed in Linux 4.4-rc5
Linux Lord Linus Torvalds says the fourth release candidate of Linux 4.4 contained “a fairly bad core bug” that's since been squashed, but may not have rung many alarm bells anyway.
“Another week, another rc,” Torvalds writes on the Linux Kernel mailing list, before going on to say that development work is progressing as usual save for “… a fairly bad core bug that was introduced in rc4 that is now fixed in rc5”.
Torvalds declares that bug “a bit embarrassing,” but added “I don't think that many people actually ever hit the problem.”
Torvalds' next problem is deciding when to schedule the release of version 4.4. He's tossing up pausing things for a week to let people enjoy the season, or proceeding at the usual pace and waiting a week before opening the version 4.5 merge window.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/14/fairly_bad_core_bug_crushed_in_linux_44rc5/
Dell and Red Hat Deliver Easier Firmware Updates for Linux Users
Dell – the first big company to sell Linux computers – is catering to open source fans again by announcing plans to make user-friendly firmware upgrades possible on Linux.
In a blog post, Richard Hughes, who works for Red Hat (RHT) and contributes to the GNOME project, writes that Red Hat and Dell have been collaborating on a system that will allow users of Dell hardware to update firmware from Linux. If that doesn't seem significant to you, it's probably because you either do not use Linux or have not spent enough of your life geeking out to know what firmware is. For a long time, most major hardware companies have offered tools that make it possible to update firmware from Windows by relying on some tricks that allow the firmware to change without crashing the system. But none of these tools has been available for Linux. Instead, Linux users have had to rely on the archaic method of booting to rescue partitions or special CDs to update firmware.
The new support for firmware updates from Dell will change this. Now, Linux users can upgrade firmware from the comfort of their production desktop environments.
Core Developer Jeff Garzik on the Similarities Between Bitcoin and Linux
Before making any contributions to Bitcoin, Bloq Co-Founder and Bitcoin Core Developer Jeff Garzik was a longtime Linux developer who started working on the operating system in the early nineties — before the creation of Red Hat. As someone who was involved in the early development of both Linux and Bitcoin, Garzik has a unique perspective on the common themes found in the two respective development communities. One of the key attributes of both Bitcoin and Linux development is that both open-source platforms were originally maintained by volunteers. Garzik explained:
“I see so many parallels between Bitcoin and Linux in that, in the early days of Linux, you had university students [and] professional engineers working in their spare time with this stuff. It was really very early stage early efforts, and with Bitcoin it is very much the same way.”
Linux Foundation Drives Mass Innovation Through Open Source With New Members
The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today is announcing three new silver members are joining the organization: Autodesk, Concurrent Computer Corporation, and DataKinetics.
Thousands of developers and more than 600 organizations work across Linux Foundation-hosted projects. From container technologies and application platforms to datacenter operating systems and networking, The Linux Foundation provides critical services to support every corner of technology infrastructure. By growing the member ecosystem to include software solutions and big data processing experts, The Linux Foundation further unites the world's leading technologists to drive open innovation on a global scale.
“Open source has become the de facto way to create software. The Linux Foundation provides a neutral home for organizations to develop technology at scale and at a rate that can't be matched working on their own,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director, The Linux Foundation. “We're excited to welcome these members to our organization as we enter another exciting year of collaboration.”
Source: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/1235311.htm
You Can Break Into a Linux System by Pressing Backspace 28 Times. Here’s How to Fix It
Hitting a key over and over again actually works for once. Two security researchers in Spain recently uncovered a strange bug that will let you into most Linux machines just by hitting the backspace key 28 times. Here’s how to fix it and keep your data protected.
The researchers, Hector Marco and Ismael Ripoll from the Cybersecurity Group at Polytechnic University of Valencia, found that it’s possible to bypass all security of a locked-down Linux machine by exploiting a bug in the Grub2 bootloader. Essentially, hitting backspace 28 times, when the machine asks for your username, accesses the “Grub rescue shell,” and once there, you can access the computer’s data or install malware. Fortunately, Marco and Ripoll have made an emergency patch to fix the Grub2 vulnerability. Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Debian have all issued patches to fix it as well.
Source: http://lifehacker.com/you-can-break-into-a-linux-system-by-pressing-backspace-1748370796